Is Marvel Casting Peter Parker for Captain America: Civil War?

Has Marvel decided to go with Peter Parker (again) over Miles Morales? We hope not, but the evidence is mounting that we'll see a very white and redundant Spider-Man in the solo film and possibly Captain America: Civil War.

First, Marvel's Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada referred to Spider-Man as "Peter Parker" in direct reference to the 2017 solo film. When asked on Tumblr if he had seen any visual concepts for the movie and what he thought was important to making an adaptation great, he replied:

"The trick to making any incarnation of Spider-Man great, whether comics, animation or film is Peter Parker," he wrote. "Get Peter's character right and the rest falls into place."

To be fair, there were two questions posed to Quesada, and the latter was a general question about Spider-Man adaptations rather than a question about the upcoming Marvel adaptation specifically. It's also possible that Marvel is trying to throw fans off the scent so they're surprised when Marvel officially announces that they're using Miles Morales. Alternatively, they could cast a non-white actor to play Peter Parker.

However, all of these options seem unlikely, especially since a new report from Badass Digest claims that Marvel is auditioning several 16-17 year old actors for the role, including Weeds and Hostages actor Mateus Ward (pictured above). This is only a rumor, but Ward would unquestionably be Peter Parker rather than Miles Morales, and wouldn't be a particularly diverse choice.

I'm sure Ward is talented and would do a fine job, but if Marvel does cast a white actor to play a Peter Parker Spider-Man, I think it would be a mistake. Not only would they be perpetuating the fairly egregious representation problem in their superhero movies, but no one needs to see another Peter Parker. This would be our third in a little over a decade, and even if they're casting young, it won't be nearly different enough to make anyone care.

On the positive side, if they are casting Spider-Man this early, that would mean that they're likely including the character in Captain America: Civil War, which starts filming in two weeks. Fans of the comics know that Spider-Man has an extremely significant role in Civil War, and although it's possible that they'll only manage to give him a cameo this late in the game, it would still be great to see the character in the movie.

Captain America: Civil War comes out on May 6, 2016, while the Spider-Man solo movie is slated for a 2017 release.